3. Social Services-Guardian and Protective Serv funding

Kentuckv. In the 1990s, the Office of the Public Guardian was placed within the Department of Social Services, now the Department for Community Based Services in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. This shift dramatically increased the number of wards, without a commensurate increase in staffing or funding. More recently, the public guardianship program came under the supervision of the service regions in the state. There are 16 service regions and six guardianship regions. Staff to ward ratios are approximately I :80, with many staff shouldering case loads far higher, along with administrative duties. The mixture of rural and urban locations in the state has created additional difficulties in meeting ward needs and visiting them in a timely manner. That the coordinator for the public guardianship program also has responsibilities for APS appeared to present a marked conflict of interest, and attempts are underway to rectify this. Illinois. Illinois has a dual system of public guardianship. The Office of State Guardian (OSG) is located within the Illinois Guardianship and Advocacy Commission. It functions statewide through seven regional offices and serves wards with estates ofless than $25,000. The Office of Public Guardian is a county by county program serving wards with estates of $25,000 and over, with the largest and most sophisticated program in Cook County. The Office of State Guardian serves approximately 5,500 wards. It has one of the highest staff-to-ward ratios in the study, at 1:132 for guardianship of the person only and 1:31 for guardianship of the property. OSG aims to compensate for its high caseload by providing extensive staff training, including having nearly all staff certified as Registered Guardians through the National Guardianship Foundation. OSG also engages in significant cross training with other entities. Staff come from a variety of disciplines, predominately social work and law. Visits to wards were once every three months or less. Focus group participants stressed that OSG, plagued by a grave lack of funding, serves far too many wards and is stretched too thinly. They noted wards frequently receive insufficient personal attention because of inadequate staffing. OSG rarely petitions to become guardian. The Cook County Office of Public Guardian has, for the past 25 years (until very recently), been directed by a highly visible attorney who had garnered significant resources, media attention and support for the program. Cook County OPG serves approximately 650 older wards and 12,000 children. Approximately 40% of the adult OPG wards are living in the community, and 25% had been exploited prior to being served by the program. Cook County OPG petitions to become guardian and has filed a number of critical lawsuits to protect the interests of wards, OPG programs in the rest of the state (not covered in our site visit) appeared uneven. 7